The Pecan Park Eagle

On a day in which the front page headlines of the local Houston Chronicle scream: “CRANE GETS DISCOUNT TO MOVE ASTROS TO AL,” I find it far easier to write about a club that once embodied a time of greatness in the history of baseball, the 1927 New York Yankees. Ironically, they were an American League team, but they still played real baseball in the AL back in 1927. There was no such “dirty and heinous” animal as a “designated hitter” in 1927, just raw power and real baseball. Pitchers batted for themselves – and managers had to make strategic choices during the game that wholly turned on whether the pitcher should be allowed to bat for himself or not.

Enjoy real baseball in 2012 as much as possible, Astros fans, even if the club has only a snowball-in-hell’s chance of winning with the gutted ball club that takes the NL field in the first year of ownership under Mr. Jim Crane. In 2013, the Astros move to the American League West and the DH rule game.

From this point forward today, we will just be talking about the manager and starting lineup for the 1927 New York Yankees. For me, at least, they are a much more pleasant baseball subject, as, indeed, they have been since I was about nine years old.

1927 NEW YORK YANKEES: (L>R) Miller Huggins, Manager; (1) Earle Combs, CF; (2) Mark Koenig, SS; (3) Babe Ruth, RF; (4) Lou Gehrig, 1B; (5) Bob Meusel, LF; (6) Tony Lazzeri, 2B: (7) Joe Dugan, 3B; (8) Pat Collins, C; (9) Herb Pennock, P.

They called them “Murderers’ Row” for their obvious deadly assault upon American League pitching in 1927, but they did not bear their famous uniform numbers of the backs of their jerseys until 1928. When they did, the numbers were assigned by their fairly inflexible positions in the order of things and, as most of you know, that’s how Messieurs Ruth and Gehrig came to be famously recognized as numbers 3 and 4.

Here’s a brief rundown on the men shown here in the 1927 order of things in the baseball universe:

Miller Huggins, Manager: As a 13-season National League second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals from 1904 through 1916, the 5’6″ 140 lb. Huggins batted .265 with only 9 career home runs, but he was destined to preside over the greatest relative power display in baseball history. Following a mediocre 5-year run as manager of the Cardinals from 1913 to 1917, Huggins was hired to manage the New York Yankees in 1918. For the next 12 seasons (1918-1929), Huggins led the Yankees to 6 pennants and 3 World Series championships, with the 1927 four game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates serving as the signature on the arguably greatest all around winning season in history. With a final record of 110 wins against only 44 defeats, the ’27 Yankees finished 19 games ahead of the second place Philadelphia Athletics. Their winning percentage of .714 took on the irony too of exposing the same numbers that would someday equal the total of career homers gathered by their leading slugger, Babe Ruth, upon his retirement in 1935.  Ruth’s 714 home runs stood as the career leadership record for all of baseball until it was surpassed by Henry Aaron in 1974. Sadly, Miller Huggins died in late September 1929 following a brief illness. – Miller Huggins was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 1964.

(1) Earle Combs, CF (6’0″, 185 lbs.) (BL/TR): Batted .356 in ’27, leading the AL with 23 triples. Posted a career BA of .325 for 12 seasons (1924-1935). Earle Combs was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970.

(2) Mark Koenig, SS (6’0″, 180 lbs.) (BB/TR): Batted .285 in ’27. Posted a career BA of .279 for 12 seasons (1925-1936).

(3) Babe Ruth, RF (6’2″, 215 lbs.) (BL/TL): Batted .356 the year he hit his record 60 HR in 1927. For his 22 season big league career (1914-1935), Ruth batted .342 in support of his career record total of 714 home runs and he was inducted in to the Hall of Fame as one of the charter members in 1936.

(4) Lou Gehrig, 1B (6’0″, 200 lbs.) (BL/TL): Batted .373 in 1927 and led the league with 52 doubles and 175 RBI. His 47 HR were second only to Ruth and miles ahead of anyone else. Together, Ruth and Gehrig slaughtered AL pitching in 1927. For his 17 season career (1923-1939), Gehrig batted .340 with 493 home runs and a consecutive games played record of 2,130 that lasted until Cal Ripken broke it in the late 1990s. Gehrig was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.

(5) Bob Meusel, LF (6’3″, 190 lbs.) (BR/TR): Batted .337 and added 103 RBI in 1927. Meusel batted .309 over the course of his 11 season (1920-1930) big league career.

(6) Tony Lazzeri, 2B (5’11”, 170 lbs.) (BR/TR): Batted .309 with 18 HR in 1927. Lazzeri batted .292 over the run of his 14 season (1926-1939) career. Lazzeri also was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991.

(7) Joe Dugan, 3B (5’11”, 160 lbs.) (BR/TR): Dugan batted .269 in 1927. His career BA for 14 seasons (1917-1931) was .280. He was a savvy player and superb defensive guy.

(8) Pat Collins, C (5’11”, 178 lbs.) (BR/TR): Collins batted .275 in 1927 and he hit .254 over 10 big league seasons (1919-1924, 1926-1929).

(9) Herb Pennock, P (6’0″, 160 lbs.) (BB/TL): Pennock won 19 and lost only 8 for the ’27 Yankees, registering an ERA of 3.00 for good measure. Over his 22 season big league career, Pennock won 241, lost 162, and completed things with an ERA of 3.o9. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1948.

So, of the ten ’27 Yankees featured in our little team photo, six went on to induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but they were the whole group of Famers from that banner year. Pitcher Waite Hoyt also went into the Hall of Fame in 1969 with a career record of 237-182.

Enjoy the memory. It was a time in which even the Yankee pitchers batted for themselves.